STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — In the last sweet moment before holiday/Christmas music overwhelms the local soundscape, music audiences had too many valuable options this past weekend: From Leonard Bernstein ("West Side Story") in a Harbor Lights Theatre production and Stephen Sondheim ("Merrily We Roll Along") at Wagner College to Musical Chairs Chamber Ensemble at the Staten Island Museum and the East End Quartet at Christ Church.

That last, somewhat exotic saxophone encounter — part of the New Brighton parish's excellent Serenade Series — did not get overlooked, quite the contrary. What a good thing that was for all concerned — the 125-plus concert-goers and the young saxophone musicians themselves.

The East End Quartet (Jonathan Wintringham, Myles Boothroyd, Matthew Amedio and Timothy Harris, all connected to the Eastman School of Music) already enjoys considerable fame, not to mention airplay on WQXR, the city classical station.

Among all-sax ensembles, which are more numerous and popular than you might assume, East End ranks pretty high.

Saxophones, which "sing" in soprano, alto, tenor and baritone voices are special, clearly, not only for their range and flexibility. They are multi-ehtnic, claimed by both the brass and woodwind orchestral families and commposers love them.

They can be deep and powerful, sweet and high, fast and madcap.

Sunday's East End program was designed to showcase not only the proficiency of the players but the instrument's magic powers.

These gifts were especially evident in the "Introduction et variations sur une Ronde Populaire" of Gabriel Pierne, (1863-1937), a sax champion, and in "Quatuor" of Jun Nagao, a sax activist (born in 1964).

The boldface numbers on the program, like Bach's "Chaconne," seemed perfectly Bach-like, even as the expressive saxes gave it a faint non-Bachish jazz shimmer.

Bizet (in an arrangement called "Carmen Fantasy") worked very well, so ingeniously organized it brought smiles to many faces, as did the fast and colorful "Michelangelo" by the incomparable tango master Astor Piazolla